P^V-la, 


ftdtdl 


re.SS 


T> 


e.ncso*'-*- 


.agaftflBiEXiJBg 


STEPHEN  B.  WEEKS 

CLASS  OF  1886;  PH.D.  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY 


OF   THE 


TIE  WEEKS  OTULEtf 


% 


3U 


ADDRESS 

OF 

CAPTAIN  C.  B.  DENSON, 

UPON  THE  INVITATION  OF 

THE  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY 

OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 

Delivered  Before  the  State  Chapter,  U.  D.  C. , 
in  Eaeeigh, 

OCTOBER  10,  1900. 


i 


ADDRESS  OF  CAPT.  C.  B.  DENSON,  UPON  THE 
INVITATION  OF  THE  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE 
CONFEDERACY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA,  DELIV- 
ERED BEFORE  THE  STATE  CHAPTER,  U.  D.  C, 
IN  RALEIGH,  N.  C,  OCTOBER  10,  1900. 

To  be  commissioned  to  utter  the  sentiments  of  this,  the 
greatest  reoresentative  body  of  the  women  of  North  Caro- 
lina which  has  ever  assembled,  touching  the  sacred  mission 
you  hold,  together  with  your  sisters  of  the  South,  for  the 
erection  of  the  memorial  pile  to  the  first  and  last  President 
of  the  Confederate  States,  is  a  privilege  so  great,  an  honor 
so  profound,  that  it  should  be  undertaken  in  the  humblest 
spirit  by  any  spokesman  of  his  comrades  of  the  gray. 

Forty  thousand  who  lie  in  their  last  blankets  among  the 
clods  of  the  valley,  could  they  lift  their  mangled  forms  to 
stand  in  this  presence,  and  thousands  more  who  have  fol- 
lowed them  to  dreamless  rest,  and  yet  other  thousands  upon 
whom  the  snows  of  time  have  fallen,  and  whose  feet  are 
swiftly  traveling  to  the  sunset — all  these,  dear  country- 
women, speak  by  this  voice  in  reverent  gratitude  to  you 
and  of  your  work,  and  they  say,  "Thank  God  for  the 
Daughters  of  the  Confederacy." 

Daughters  of  the  Confederacy  !  The  very  name  is  a 
benison  upon  the  past ;  it  is  a  tribute  of  laurel  upon  each 
grass-grown  grave.  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy !  It 
rings  in  our  ears  as  if  sweet  bells  pealed  their  chimes 
through  the  storm  and  sunshine  of  forty  years,  and  we 
seem  to  hear  their  echoes  going  on  to  the  ages  yet  to  come. 

Jefferson  Davis  stands  alone,  in  a  niche  of  his  own,  in 
human  history.  His  life  is  without  a  parallel.  In  genius, 
in  attainments,  in  character,  he  was  almost  illimitable. 

As  the  Spaniard  stood  upon  his  "peak,  in  Darien,"  an  I 


^0 


gazed  upon  the  boundless  Pacific,  spreading  into  unknown 
horizon,  filled  the  while  with  astonishment  and  awe,  so 
feels  the  student  of  human  character  as  he  dwells  upon  this 
majestic  figure  in  American  annals. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS  WAS  A  SOLDIER. 
The  youngest  son  of  ten  children  of  a  Revolutionary 
soldier  of  Georgia,  he  was  born  in  Christian  county,  Ken- 
tucky, June  3,  1808,  but  moved  to  Mississippi  in  infancy. 
When  in  the  senior  class  at  Transylvania  University,  at 
sixteen,  he  was  app Dinted  cadet  at  West  Point,  and  gradu- 
ated in  1828. 

Then  came  frontier  life  for  the  protection  of  the  West, 
and  he  bore  himself  with  such  gallantry  in  the  Black  Hawk 
war  that,  when  the  struggle  with  the  Indian  warriors  was 
at  last  successful,  the  renowned  chief  was  sent  to  St.  Louis 
under  the  special  charge  of  the  young  lieutenant. 

He  won  the  love  of  the  fair  daughter  of  Zachar}^  Taylor, 
afterwards  General  and  President,  who  was  opposed  to  a 
union  that  involved  the  hardships  of  a  soldier's  for  his 
beloved  child. 

Peace  came,  Lieut.  Davis  laid  down  his  commission,  and 
with  his  hard-won  bride,  plunged  into  the  swamps  of  the 
Mississippi  for  the  cotton-planter's  life. 

Success  followed,  but-  the  cup  was  dashed  from  his  lips 
by  the  loss  of  his  lovely  bride.  Many  years  passed  before 
he  emerged  from  the  seclusion  of  his  sonow — years  of  such 
study  and  contemplation  in  his  withdrawal  from  the  world 
as  made  hirn  master  of  science  and  philosophy. 

War  clouds  rolled  up  again,  and  the  United  States  was 
involved  in  a  contest  with  Mexico,  over  Texas.  Missis- 
sippi organized  a  regiment  of  volunteers,  and  called  him  to 
command  as  Colonel.  This  expression  of  confidence  from 
the  brave  young  patriots  who  won  such  distinction  in  the 
field  of  arms,  came  to  him  as  a  surprise,  while  in  Washing- 
ton, serving  as  representative  for  the  State  at  large  in  Con- 
gress.    To  accept  was  to  leave  the  field  of  ambition,  where 


leadership  was  rapidly  coming,  and  it  was  to  leave  the 
sweet  ties  of  home,  for  in  the  previous  year  the  devoted 
partner  of  his  life,  Varina  Howell,  had  become  his  wife, 
and  this  gracious  lady,  so  long  his  helpmeet  through  num- 
berless trials  and  sorrows,  yet  survives  as  his  widow,  encir- 
cled by  the  affection  of  millions. 

But  ambition  was  denied,  even  love  regretfully  surren- 
dered when  the  voice  of  duty  called.  He  could  not  forget 
that  a  soldier's  son,  he  was  bred  a  soldier.  He  sprang  to 
the  field  ;  at  his  uigent  request,  almost  demand,  he  obtained 
a  new  weapon — the  percussion  rifle — for  the  flint-lock 
musket  Gen.  Scott  was  wedded  to.  He  drilled  his  officers 
and  men  with  a  manual  devised  by  himself  for  the  rifle, 
and  soon  the  day  of  battle  came. 

At  Monterey  his  troops  carried  the  redoubt  La  Tana- 
varia,  from  which  others  had  recoiled.  He  entered  the 
city  with  the  retreating  Mexicans,  and  fought  his  way 
through  the  blasted  walls  of  the  houses  where  the  streets 
were  untenable  on  account  of  the  fire  of  the  Mexican  artil- 
lery. 

Victory  over,  the  city  won,  there  came  the  dash  of  sixty 
miles  through  a  desert  and  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista.  It 
was  a  desperate  undertaking  by  Taylor's  army,  against 
three  times  their  number  in  strong  position. 

When  other  troops  of  Taylor's  army  had  been  driven 
back  by  superior  force,  and  their  broken  ranks  were  stream- 
ing to  the  rear,  his  stern  command  rang  out,  "  Steady,  Mis- 
sissippians  ;  close  up!  forward!"  Quick,  by  .seizing  two 
ridges  at  an  obtuse  angle,  that  commanded  a  ravine  up 
which  the  enemy  must  approach,  the  deadly  fire  which 
destroyed  the  advancing  columns  forever  gave  a  name  in 
history  to  "the  Mississippi  rifle." 

This  was  the  origin  of  what  has  been  said  of  the  marvel- 
ous V  formation,  which  every  military  man  knows,  upon 
an  ordinary  plain,  would  invite  defeat  by  flank  attack  from 
the  enemy. 


The  dangers  of  the  day  to  the  Americans  were  many, 
and  when  the  threatened  capture  of  Bragg' s  battery  would 
have  completed  its  ruin,  Col.  Davis  rushed  his  regiment 
for  a  mile  at  the  double  quick,  and  drove  back  with  fearful 
slaughter  three  successive  attacks  by  the  infantry,  the 
dragoons,  and  the  lancers,  and  the  long  and  hard-fought 
day  was  won. 

Well  might  the  grizzled  old  General  declare,  "Napoleon 
never  had  a  marshal  who  behaved  more  superbly  than  Col. 
Davis  did  to-day  !  " 

And  all  this  while  enduring  agony.  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing a  Mexican  bullet  had  shattered  his  foot.  Unheeding 
pain  and  exhaustion  of  blood,  or  the  entreaties  of  others, 
he  kept  the  saddle  the  livelong  day,  until  victory  was  won. 

The  ministrations  of  a  faithful  brother  officer  through 
the   night  probably  saved   foot  and  life,   but  the  broken 
i  bones  could  not  then  be  removed  at  once,  and  he  was  con- 
demned to  return  on  crutches  to  his  home. 

When,  fifteen  years  later,  his  State  called  together  her 
troops  for  the  war  for  Southern  independence,  he  became 
Major-General  commanding,  and  was  with  difficulty  in- 
duced to  give  up  the  tented  field  to  accept  the  crushing 
responsibilities  of  the  great  part  which  he  neither  sought 
nor  desired,  the  Presidency  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Even  then  he  was  kept  from  the  perils  of  the  lines  only 
by  the  magnitude  of  the  task  which  no  other  hand  could 
perform.  It  was  once  the  duty  of  A.  P.  Hill  to  beseech, 
nay,  to  order  him  from  the  line  of  battle,  in  front  of  Rich- 
mond, where  death  was  falling  thick  and  fast.  Was  he  not 
a  soldier  ? 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS    WAS    A    STATESMAN. 

Entering  politics  after  a  seclusion  of  eight  years,  he 
boldly  met  the  famous  Sargent  Prentiss  in  debate,  then  the 
most  renowned  orator  of  the  Southwest.  As  soon  as  he 
wa-  able  for  service  after  the  Mexican  struggle  he  was  sent 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  from  the  beginning 


was  a  conspicuous  figure.  And  this  was  an  era  of  giants 
in  that  body,  never  equalled  before  or  since.  Clay,  Web- 
ster, Calhoun  and  their  compeers  yet  survived,  while 
younger  men  were  there,  destined  to  play  great  parts  in 
the  widening  future. 

His  leadership  came  from  his  inflexible  will  and  un- 
swerving adherence  to  principle  ;  to  this  he  added  perfect 
mastery  of  the  facts  in  the  complicated  questions  of  debate, 
a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  history  and  philosophy  of 
the  Constitution  and  of  the  whole  political  life  of  the  States 
constituting  the  federation.  The  crowning  grace  was  utter 
forgetfulness  of  self,  and  courtesy  to  the  bitterest  opponent 
of  his  measures. 

President  Pierce  wished  him  to  become  Secretary  of 
War,  and  here  the  administrative  side  of  statesmanship 
was  exhibited  as  never  before  in  that  chair. 

He  reformed  the  office  routine,  appointing  officials  purely 
for  competency  and  experience ;  changed  the  system  of 
tactics  to  adapt  it  to  modern  warfare,  introduced  improved 
weapons  and  projectiles,  especially  the  minnie  rifle;  substi- 
tuted iron  carriages  for  artilleiy,  instead  of  wood  ;  largely 
extended  the  system  of  arsenals  and  fortifications  ;  estab- 
lished a  chain  of  permanent  garrisoned  forts  to  protect 
settlers  in  the  West ;  sent  accomplished  officers,  like 
McClellan  and  others,  to  Europe  to  study  warfare,  and  set 
on  foot  the  preparatory  surveys  for  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific 
as  a  measure  of  defensive  importance  to  the  country. 
Every  detail,  however  minute,  had  his  watchful  eye. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  vivified  the  depart- 
ment and  made  it  a  great  arm  of  the  government.  Yet  the 
day  came  when  from  its  portals  issued  the  orders  to  cast 
ignominy  upon  him,  which  the  judgment  of  mankind  has 
flung  back  upon  the  master  whose  malice  conceived  and 
the  slave  who  abjectly  obeyed  such  orders. 

Returning  to  the  Senate,  he  was  the  leader  and  defender 
of  the  party  that  championed  the  rights  of  the  States,  and 


one  of  the  committee  of  thirteen  to  devise  measures  of  con- 
ciliation of  the  respective  sections  upon  the  eve  of  the  war. 

Convinced,  as  he  has  irrefutably  proven,  of  the  right  of 
the  state  to  withdraw  from  a  compact  broken  by  the  once 
sister  States,  he  was  never  an  advocate  of  the  policy  of  with- 
drawal, except  when  no  other  course  was  left  to  a  self- 
respecting  people.  If  any  desired  secession  as  a  good  in 
itself,  he  was  not  invited  to  their  councils. 

But  when  all  efforts  for  peace  with  justice  and  honor 
were  in  vain,  and  Mississippi  notified  him  of  her  with- 
drawal from  the  Union,  he  took  leave  of  the  Senate,  and, 
upon  his  election,  assumed  the  reins  of  the  Confederate 
government,  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  February  18,  1861,  and 
transferred  the  same  afterward  to  Richmond,  upon  the 
secession  of  Virginia. 

Here  was  the  supreme  test  of  the  statesman.  To  organ- 
ize an  army  thirty  times  as  large  as  Washington  ever  com- 
manded, although  it  was  destined  to  be  opposed  by  nearly 
three  millions  of  troops.  For  a  country  almost  purely 
agricultural,  and  which  was  wholly  without  military  man- 
ufactures of  any  character,  from  a  gun  cap  or  a  grain  of 
powder  to  a  seige  train,  to  equip  and  furnish  with  arms, 
artillery  and  munitions  a  force  which  was  to  contend  for 
five  years  in  the  greatest  battles  of  modern  times  and  to 
meet  in  two  thousand  two  hundred  combats,  great  and 
small,  an  army  formed  from  unlimited  men  and  with  the 
wealth  of  the  world  at  command. 

To  gather  a  navy  from  the  wrecks  in  Southern  navy 
yards,  or  picked  up  obscurely  on  foreign  shores,  and  with 
such  means  to  drive  northern  commerce  from  the  seas ;  to 
revolutionize  naval  warfare  among  the  nations  of  the  earth 
by  the  iron-clad  and  the  torpedo,  and  carry  the  battle-cross 
flag  around  the  world  in  triumph  ! 

To  maintain  the  rights  of  the  judiciary,  and  to  preserve 
the  sacred  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  the  orderly  conduct  of 
civil  government ;  and  that  in  the  face  of  its  daily  violation 


7 

across  the  Potomac,  in  outrage  of  the  very  Constitution 
which  they  claimed  they  were  warring  upon  others  to 
obey  ! 

What  statesman  of  all  the  world  ever  accomplished  such 
tasks  ? 

If  his  power  of  administration  be  judged  by  his  choice  of 
men  for  service,  behold  the  Cabinet  filled  by  Toombs, 
Benjamin,  Hunter,  George  Davis,  Randolph,  Trenhohn, 
Seddon,  Breckinridge,  Watts.  Reagan,  and  like  giants  of 
those  days. 

And  who  received  his  commission  at  the  head  of  the 
Confederate  armies?  Robert  E.  Lee,  Stonewall  Jackson, 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and  their 
great  lieutenants,  Stuart,  Beauregard,  A.  P.  Hill,  D.  H. 
Hill,  Forrest,  Whiting,  Polk,  Pender,  Longstreet,  Hardee, 
Hampton,  Hoke,  Ewell,  Kirby  Smith,  Stephen  D.  Lee, 
Hood,  Branch,  Pettigrew,  Grimes,  Anderson,  Early,  Cle- 
burne, Gordon,  Ashby,  Ransom,  Pickett,  Lane — where  shall 
we  pause  in  the  roll  of  the  immortals? 

It  has  been  well  said,  "  Men  judge  Napoleon  by  his  mar- 
shals." Judge  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  cause  by  his  chosen 
chieftains. 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS   WAS    AN    ORATOR. 

To  him  came  the  supreme  gift  of  oratory — that  speech 
hot  from  the  heart  and  winged  with  uplifting  power,  which 
bears  listener  with  speaker  into  a  sphere  of  its  own,  beyond 
the  common  and  sordid  things  of  earth. 

He  had  no  tricks  of  tongue.  He  was  simple  in  word>, 
but  pitiless  in  logic  ;  abounding  in  illustration,  clear,  pun- 
gent, overpowering  in  conclusion. 

A  writer  has  pictured  his  appearance  in  the  Senate  thus  : 
"  Of  the  Norman  type,  tall,  sinewy,  with  fair  hair,  gray 
eyes,  high  forehead,  straight  nose,  thin  compressed  lips, 
pointed  chin,  with  cheeks  hollow,  and  many  intersecting 
furrows  about  the  mouth."  The  distinctive  type  was  that 
of  "  sharpness  of  feature  and  intensity  of  expression,"  giv- 


N 


8 

ing  force  to  the  penetrating  thought  which  reached  the 
depths  of  every  heart. 

Among  his  compeers  in  the  Senate  were  Thos.  H.  Ben- 
ton of  Missouri,  Mangum  of  North  Carolina,  who  had  been 
its  presiding  officer ;  Chase  of  Ohio,  Berrien  of  Georgia, 
Bell  of  Tennessee,  and  towering  in  their  midst,  the  three 
great  leaders  of  the  entire  country  in  their  respective  poli- 
cies, Ciay,  Webster  and  Calhoun. 

Yet,  when  Jefferson  Davis  spoke,  men  listened  as  if  in  a 
trance,  and  his  dominant  spirit  was  at  home,  "  Listening 
senates  to  command." 

Prescott,  the  historian,  who  was  familiar  with  the  greatest 
parliamentarians  and  the  most  powerful  orators  of  Europe, 
declared,  as  he  beheld  him,  u  Mr.  Davis  is  the  most  accom- 
plished man  in  the  Senate."  And  when  asked  if  he  had 
given  that  judgment,  replied,  "Yes,  he  has  strength,  ani- 
mation, energy,  classical  elegance  and  luminous  simplicity. 
He  is  finished,  logical  and  effective ;  in  manner  and  argu- 
ment nearer  the  perfect  model  of  a  Senator  than  any  other 
member  of  the  body. 

Read  his  speeches  to-day  ; — of  all  the  riches  of  our  moth- 
er tongue^  as  compared  with  his  farewell  defence  of  the 
South  in  leaving  the  Senate  forever,  where  is  there  a  more 
il  entire  and  perfect  chrysolite  ?  " 

I  despair  of  conveying  the  toucrj  of  the  burning  eloquence 
that  burst  from  his  inspired  frame,  when  in  the  darkest 
grimmest  hour  of  all,  he  invoked  every  true  soldier  to  stand 
at  his  post,  and  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,  with  his 
country's  liberties. 

Never  will  I  forget  the  scene  before  us,  as  the  troops  visi- 
bly rose  and  fell  in  response  to  sentences  from  the  heart  of 
a  patriot,  with  the  majesty  of  a  prophet. 

Oh,  well  says  the  ancient  adage,  the  orator  is  not  made — 
he  is  born,  God's  gift.  The  stream  of  his  genius  bursts 
from  the  rock  of  circumstance  in  as  many  forms  perhaps 
as  the  speaking  cascades  of  many  regions ;  but  as  there  is 


!3 

swelled  the  chorus  of  the  timid  and  the  time-serving.  That 
to  me  would  be  treason.  Treason  to  truth  and  right,  to 
honor  and  duty.  A  crime  which  through  that  war  and 
after  could  not  be  laid  at  our  door/' 

A  lover  of  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country,  the  deepest 
wrench  to  the  feelings  of  the  patriot  came  with  the  strik- 
ing down  of  the  Confederacy  with  the  world  power  allied 
against  her.  What  a  picture  was  the  closing  drama  of  the 
war !  Disaster  after  disaster  wrung  the  hearts,  but  could 
not  terrify  the  souls,  of  the  few,  against  a  myriad  of 
foes.  A  great  man  has  nobly  said  :  "  Vicksburg  falls — 
Gettysburg  is  lost ;  armies  wither.  Generals  die  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight ;  a  private  soldier  is  all  of  a  company. 
Fields  devastated,  crops  burned,  flocks  and  herds  consumed, 
naught  is  left  but  man  and  steel — the  soldier  and  his  sword. 
Atlanta,  Mobile,  Charleston  go — the  Confederacy  is  cut  to 
pieces.  The  last  port  is  sealed  at  Wilmington — the  world 
and  the  South  are  parted. 

"  Everything  fails  but  manhood — and  womanhood,  thank 
God  !  The  woman  cooks,  and  weaves  and  works ;  nurses 
the  stricken,  buries  her  dead  and  cheers  the  living.  The 
man  stands  to  his  gun,  behind  Johnston,  behind  Lee. 
Petersburg  and  Richmond  starve  and  bleed,  yet  remain 
dauntless.  And  while  the  thunders  shake  the  Capitol,  and 
the  earth  trembles,  there  stands  Jefferson  Davis,  unshaken, 
untrembling,  toiling  to  give  bread  to  his  armies  and  their 
kindred  ;  toiling  to  hold  up  the  fainting  arms  of  his  veter- 
ans. 

"  At  last  the  very  fountains  of  nature  fail.  The  ex- 
hausted South  falls  prone  upon  its  shield.  Hope,  the  bat- 
tle-cross flag  ;  gone — forever  gone." 

JEFFERSON    DAVIS    WAS    A    CHRISTIAN. 

When  the  mortal  blow  was  struck,  the  President  was  at 
the  worship  of  God,  in  His  sanctuary.  He  was  a  faithful 
communicant  of  the  chnrch  of  Washington,  and  of  Lee. 
He  loved  to  recall  how  Washington  had  built  a  log  chapel 


14 

in  the  dark  hours  of  the  Revolution,  and  read  the  prayers 
to  his  ragged  Continentals  with  his  own  lips,  and  Lee  had 
gathered  his  officers  about  him  for  the  same  sacred  service. 

Mr.  Davis  believed  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  all  their  full- 
ness, and  kept  a  chilk-like  faith,  close  to  the  feet  of  the 
Saviour  of  mankind. 

The  bravery  of  the  men  who  descended  into  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  and  gave  life  for  country  with  a 
smile,  like  Pelham  and  Burgwyn,  Avery  and  Cowan,  and 
thousands  more  of  the  gray,  was  sublime.  But  it  was  not 
the  supreme  glory  of  the  Confederacy.  That  lay  in  immor- 
tal character,  to  survive  in  other  worlds  than  this. 

All  the  world  knew  and  respected  the  truth  of  the  Con- 
federate leaders.  The  reverent  spirit  of  the  noble  procla- 
mations of  the  President,  calling  the  people  to  thanksgiving, 
or,  alas  !  to  fasting  and  prayer,  impressed  every  heart. 

No  matter  what  false  bulletins  w^re  published  in  Wash- 
ington, and  official  victories  claimed  in  New  York,  while 
flags  flaunted  in  the  breeze  and  cannon  roared  their  empty 
salutes.  /A  single  line  from  Jackson  or  from  Lee.  "God 
has  been  pleased  to  give  victory  to  our  arms  to  day  "  was 
accepted  implicitly  by  all  Christendom,  and  never  in  vain.. 

While  on  his  way  to  prolong  the  struggle  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  Mr.  Davis  was  captured  and  conveyed  to  Fort- 
ress Monroe,  with  all  the  petty  indignities  that  small  minds 
could  conceive. 

And  there  he  was  confined  in  a  dark  casement  within 
the  rampart  of  the  fortress,  walled  across  to  convert  it  into 
a  dungeon,  with  openings  for  the  lamp  that  blazed  day  and: 
night,  windows  heavily  barred,  two  sentinels  within  pacing 
the  floor  always,  and  forbidden  to  speak,  yet  always  gazing 
upon  him. 

The  ruler  of  a  great  country  was  treated  like  a  felon,  in 
the  vain  effort,  through  his  torture,  to  degrade  the  eagle- 
spirit  of  the  South. 

Nor  did   this  satisfy  his  jailer,  or  the  master,  Stanton. 


i5 

After  a  struggle  in  which  death  was  courted,  iron  shackles 
of  great  weight  were  fastened  upon  the  ankles  of  an  old 
man,  nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  sick,  emaciated,  fevered, 
almost  blind  ;  the  sight  of  one  eye,  long  destroyed  by  neu- 
ralgia, and  that  of  the  other  trembling  in  the  balance  ;  / 
sleepless,  worn  with  sorrow  for  his  country,  and  anxiety 
for  wife  and  children. 

What  was  this  for?  There  was  no  possibility  of  escape. 
What  for,  but  to  wreak  revenge?  They  had  feared  the  loss 
of  power  and  of  plunder,  through  the  taxes  and  burdens 
direct  and  indirect,  imports  and  tariffs  paid  by  the  South 
under  the  forms  of  law  to  heap  up  their  wealth.  And  ter- 
ror and  shame  had  they  undergone,  again  and  again,  when 
before  the  eyes  of  mankind  their  boasted  victories  had  turned 
to  crushing  defeats.  What  for,  then,  but  to  punish  us,  you 
and  your  fathers,  me  and  my  children,  in  the  person  of  this 
wasted,  skeleton-like  frame,  with  the  irons  cutting  to  the 
bone,  and  the  long  nights,  impossible  of  rest  or  sleep.  He 
bore  all  for  his  people. 

His  beloved  and  devottd  wife  was  forbidden  to  see  him ; 
the  military  surgeon  was  not  allowed  to  answer  her  impas- 
sioned appeals  to  learn  his  condition ;  he  was  denied  the 
common  comforts  of  life  ;  refused  the  room  and  air  for  ex- 
ercise when  his  life  was  in  peril  from  its  need,  but  not 
asked  by  him,  for  he  never  sought  anything  at  the  hands 
of  his  torturers.  And  so  he  was  slipping  rapidly  down  to 
death,  when  fear  of  the  opinion  of  mankind  brought  some 
relief  of  the  worst,  although  the  prison  held  him  two  long 
years. 

They  accused  him  of  the  murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  the 
falsehood  was  soon  disproved. 

They  held  him  responsible  for  the  sickness  and  death  of 
Federal  prisoners  at  Andersonville.  Aye,  and  the  slander 
is  repeated  to-day  against  the  chivalrous  men  of  the  South, 
and  in  the  very  school  books  of  the  young. 

They  never  tell  you  that  the  South  had  sixty  thousand 


i6 

more  prisoners  of  the  Northern  armies  than  they  possessed 
of  ours  ;  and  yet  four  thousand  more  Confederates  died  as 
prisoners  in  the  North  than  the  Federals  in  our  hands. 
Yes,  they  died,  the  brave  and  true,  on  the  bleak  plains  of 
Johnson's  island,  in  the  great  Northern  lake,  and  herded  in 
unspeakable  misery  at  Camp  Chase  and  Elmira,  some  in 
the  very  penitentiary,  at  Columbus,  and  in  Fort  Delaware, 
of  brackish  water  unfit  for  man  or  beast,  and  on  the  burn- 
ing sands  of  Point  Lookout. 

They  do  not  tell  you  that  however  extreme  was  the  ne- 
cessity, brought  about  by  their  sword  and  torch,  that  the 
prisoner  and  his  guard  at  Andersonville  had  the  same  daily 
ration,  and  died  in  the  same  ratio  of  mortality.  They  found 
in  the  official  records,  orders  that  prisoners  and  troops 
should  fare  alike  of  the  scanty  food  at  our  command.  Aye, 
although  with  unlimited  food  and  medical  supplies,  our 
men  were  denied  often,  even  with  cruelty  and  insult.  And 
moreover,  they  not  only  refused  exchange,  because  Grant 
would  not  have  our  veterans  in  front  of  him  again,  at  any 
cost; — refused  to  permit  us  to  buy  supplies  and  medical  and 
surgical  needs  in  their  own  or  other  ports  to  be  used  for  suf- 
fering prisoners  of  their  own;  refused  even  to  be  burdened 
with  the  sick  and  disabled  prisoners  in  our  hands,  tendered 
for  humanity's  sake,  without  exchange,  and  yet  affect  to 
deplore  the  evils,  in  their  power  alone  to  relieve  ! 

They  accused  Mr.  Davis  of  treason.  But  they  dared  not 
bring  him  to  trial,  after  two  long  years  of  imprisonment. 
Although  indicted  and  called  for  trial,  eagerly  looked  for 
by  him,  to  prove  the  falsehood  of  the  charge,  with  the 
world  for  the  greater  jury.  No,  not  in  the  light  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Confederation,  and  of  the  Union  of  the  American 
States,  the  plain  language  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  whole 
course  of  the  jurisprudence  of  the  country.  His  allegiance 
had  been  rendered  where  the  fathers  had  taught  him  that 
it  belonged.  And  the  refusal  to  try  was  confession  at  last 
before  mankind  that  the  words  "  rebel  and  traitor  "  were 
slanderous  upon  the  truest  patriot  of  his  land. 


i7 

He  was  a  christian  indeed.  All  the  wrongs  and  tortures 
inflicted,  passed  from  his  soul  as  if  they  had  never  been, 
when  at  last,  in  his  low  and  enfeebled  state,  his  old  rector, 
the  good  Doctor  Minnegerode — well  do  I  remember  his 
pathetic  face — was  permitted  to  administer  to  his  spiritual 
wants. 

He  asked  to  receive  the  holy  communion,  and  as  in  duty 
bound,  the  Doctor  bade  him  examine  himself,  whether  he 
had  truly  forgiven  his  persecutors.  When  so  assured,  he 
knew  the  grace  vouchsafed  to  the  martyr  had  come  to  this 
suffering  spirit.  What  a  scene,  this  picture  of  the  humble 
christian  receiving  the  sacred  elements  at  the  hand  of  the 
man  of  God  in  his  narrow  dungeon,  while  without  stands 
the  commanding  general,  present  even  here,  but  turning 
his  back  in  shame,  with  his  armed  guards,  over  the  caged 
victim. 

Once  in  all  that  time  of  deep  grief  and  dark  depression, 
in  response  to  the  kindly  voice  of  his  surgeon,  rousing  him 
from  dangerous  apathy,  when  questioned  in  regard  to  the 
women  of  the  South.  Mr.  Davis  forgot  his  sorrow  and  broke 
the  silence  with  the  triumphant  ring  of  pride  : 

"If  asked  for  my  sublimest  ideal  of  what  woman  should 
be,  in  the  time  of  war,  I  would  point  to  the  dear  women  of 
my  people,  as  I  have  seen  them  during  the  recent  struggle. 

"All  they  had  was  flung  into  the  contest — beauty,  grace, 
passion,  ornamtnt;  their  songs,  if  they  had  heart  to  sing, 
were  patriotic ;  their  trinkets  cast  into  the  public  crucible  ; 
the  very  carpets  from  their  floors  portioned  out  as  blankets 
to  the  suffering  soldiers  of  their  cause. 

"As  nurses  of  the  sick,  as  providers  for  the  combatants, 
as  angels  of  charity  and  mercy,  as  patient  and  beautiful 
household  duties,  accepting  every  sacrifice  with  unconcern, 
and  lightening  the  burdens  of  war  by  every  labor  proper  to 
sheir  sphere,  the  dear  women  of  my  people  deserve  to  take 
rank  with  the  highest  heroines  of  the  grandest  days  of  the 
grandest  countries." 


i8 

Aye,  great  spirit  that  has  passed  the  veil  unto  the  un- 
known, you  speak  for  history  herself.  I  have  stood  upon 
the  stony  floor  where  those  words  were  uttered  and  across 
which  those  chained  feet  were  dragged,  and  gazing  through 
the  narrow  deep  sunk  window  into  the  speck  of  blue  be- 
yond, have  felt  that  around  me  was  a  martyr's  shrine,  and 
yonder,  his  abiding  home  in  Paradise. 

Oh,  the  woman  of  the  South  is  so  unreconstructed,  they 
say,  and  now  she  will  build  a  monument  to  Jefferson  Davis. 
This  will  be  not  only  a  memorial  pile  to  the  surpassing 
bravery  of  soldiers,  which  we  have  agreed  to  concede  to 
the  judgment  of  mankind,  but  to  build  to  the  "  First  and 
Last  President  of  the  Confederate  States,"  is  to  commemo- 
rate the  principles  of  State  sovereignty  ;  it  is  to  declare 
that  the  soldiers  of  the  gray  were  not  only  brave,  but  right, 
and  their  cause  must  receive  the  sanction  of  the  ages. 

The  women  of  the  South  are  so  wrong.  We  admire 
their  grace  and  beauty,  we  have  been  astonished  at  their 
revelation  of  energy  and  helpfulness ;  we  are  charmed  by  a 
fascination  in  voice  and  manner  and  exquisite  courtesy  ; 
but  oh,  they  look  even  now  upon  visions  of  a  dead  past, 
and  linger  with  the  grayhaired,  poverty  stricken  men  in 
gray.  They  do  not  know  how  to  reverence  the  new  gods, 
our  mighty  destiny,  our  power,  our  millions  upon  millions 
of  tieasure.  The  women  of  the  South  are  unapproachable, 
but  they  are  so  wrong ;  they  are  wholly  unreconstructed. 

Thanks  be  to  God,  in  a  world  of  shifting  change  and 
fortune,  some  things  are  fixed  and  immutable.  Are  not 
truth  and  honor,  the  plighted  faith  of  States  and  of  men, 
virtue  itself,  unchangeable?  Who  can  reconstruct  truth 
with  gilded  falsehood  ? 

The  women  of  the  South  know  what  they  do.  The 
temptations  to  place  and  wealth  and  power  reach  not  the 
serene  atmosphere  of  high  principle  where  they  live,  unap- 
proachable by  the  creatures  that  bark  at  them  below. 

You,  my  dear  countrywomen,  will  build  this  symbol  of 


19 

the  martyr  and  the  cause.  Build  it  now,  while  yet  the 
officer  lives  who  surrendered  eleven  thousand  troops  to 
Stonewall  Jackson,  almost  without  firing  a  gun,  but  won 
the  victory  of  Fortress  Monroe — the  shackling  of  an  aged, 
unarmed  captive,  the  uncrowned  king  of  Southern  hearts. 
Build  it  as  the  everlasting  type  of  the  judgment  of  pos- 
terity ! 

Liberty,  justice  to  the  past,  hope  for  the  future  of  Con- 
stitutional government  is  in  your  hands.  Let  them  print 
what  books  they  please ;  place  the  image  of  the  incendiary  of 
Columbia  and  the  robber  of  the  Shenandoah  upon  the  money 
we  use,  and  deny  the  ground  for  a  monument  to  Confeder- 
ate prisoners  where  our  dead  are  resting  in  Northern  soil. 
With  you,  mothers  and  daughters  and  granddaughters  of 
the  Confederacy,  all  is  safe.  The  children  who  nestle 
about  your  feet,  when  they  look  upon  our  graves,  will 
never  call  us  traitors. 

Cornelia,  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  you  are  here! 
Mary,  mother  of  Washington,  you  live  again  in  these  ven- 
erated forms — the  mothers  of  the  Memorial  Association. 
And  you,  oh,  sister  of  Johnston  Pettigrew,  whose  presence 
was  healing  to  the  wounded  and  despairing  in  the  hospitals 
of  Virginia,  you  live  always  in  these  gracious  Daughters  of 
the  Confederacy  ! 

Dear  guardians  of  the  fame  of  your  dead,  let  not  North 
Carolina  be  the  least  in  this,  though  greatest  on  every  other 
page  of  Confederate  history.  More  and  more  with  the 
passing  years  did  Mr.  Davis  come  to  know  and  love  our 
people,  in  the  last  days  of  his  life.  Almost  the  final  sen- 
tences from  his  pen  were  those  addressed  through  that 
distinguished  soldier,  Col.  Wharton  J.  Green,  and  his  com- 
mittee, to  the  people  of  North  Carolina  assembled  at  Fay- 
etteville  for  the  centennial  celebration  of  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution.  For,  although  it  was  never 
accepted  until  assured  of  amendments  protecting  the  rights 
of  the  State  as  the  people  understood  them,  nowhere  was 


20 

the  Constitution  and  Union  of  our  fathers  more  sincerely 
loved.     Mr.  Davis  said : 

"  Without  diminution  of  regard  for  the  great  and  good 
men  of  other  colonies,  I  have  been  led  to  special  veneration 
for  the  men  of  North  Carolina,  as  the  first  to  distinctly 
declare  for  State  independence,  and,  from  first  to  last,  to 
uphold  the  right  of  a  people  to  govern  themselves. 
*******  * 

"  She  gave  her  sons  a  sacrificial  offering  on  the  altar  of 
the  liberties  their  fathers  had  won,  and  had  left  as  an  inheri- 
tance to  their  posterity.  Many  sleep  far  from  the  land  of 
their  nativity.  Peace  to  their  ashes !  Honor  to  their 
memory  and  the  mothers  who  bore  them  !  " 

To  these  noble  words  your  respone  will  be  a  fit  tribute  to 
him  who  lay  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death.  Spoken 
when  more  than  four-score  years  had  laid  their  weight 
upon  his  gray  head,  they  sum  up  the  judgment  of  history 
upon  North  Carolina. 

You  are  the  heart  of  North  Carolina,  and  as  you  erect 
this  shaft  to  the  soldier,  the  statesman,  the  orator,  the 
patriot  and  the  Christian,  you  will  say,  in  the  beautiful 
language  of  another  :  — 

"  To  the  dust  we  give  his  body  : — 
His  memory  to  the  ages." 

"  Ah,  they  chained  his  feeble  frame, 
But  they  could  not  chain  his  thought, 
Nor  the  right  for  which  he  fought  ; 
And  they  could  not  chain  his  fame, 
But  they  riveted  his  name 
To  the  hearts  of  you  and  me." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032757909 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


